Nathan Buckley’s last game and the legacy he will leave behind at Collingwood

On regular walks around the CBD, Nathan Buckley would see the same lonely homeless person — then one day, he took matters into his own hands.

Nathan Buckley will coach his last game for Collingwood on Monday. Picture: Sarah Reed

Nathan Buckley snuck his guest in through the side of the Holden Centre to avoid the media pack outside.

It was only a few days out from one of Buckley’s greatest coaching triumphs, the upset win over Richmond in the 2018 preliminary final.

Buckley’s guest was inspirational educator and author, Hugh van Cuylenberg, from The Resilience Project, who had seen Buckley’s kindness and emotional connectedness shine many times helping a long list of Collingwood fans and people in need.

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But it was on this walk from the side of the training base down into the bowels of the Holden Centre that blew van Cuylenberg away.

“I’ll never forget it, because not a single person walked past him without getting a really genuine and warm compliment from him,” Van Cuylenberg said.

“Jamie Elliott had just got out of the pool and ‘Bucks’ said ‘Mate you are so ripped, have a look at you’ and gave him a big pat on the back.

Nathan Buckley will farewell Collingwood fans for the final time on Monday against Melbourne. Picture: Jono Searle/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

“Then he walked past Darcy Moore and said ‘I would kill for that hair, you have the best hair’.

“Then he walks past the bootstudder, and gave him a big five and said ‘You are on fire today. You are always on fire’.

“It was the biggest game of Buckley’s coaching career coming up in two days or something and there’s a guy in corporate attire or a suit and he says ‘You are so sharp, always so sharp’.

“No one escaped him without getting some form of compliment and similarly he’s asking me about my life and how my family was.

“I just thought ‘Mate don’t worry about me and my life, you’ve got Richmond at the weekend’.

“I was just so impressed by that and it was a time where you could excuse him for being very focused on the task at hand or a bit insular for everything he was facing at the weekend.

“But he was just showing so much genuine love and care for the people around him, whether they were playing for him or not, it was literally everyone he was saw on the walk.

“At his core he is just an exceptionally kind and caring person.”

Hugh Van Cuylenburg, founder of the Resilience Project, is in awe of Buckley’s selflessness. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It was those connections which became the pillars of his coaching philosophy in recent years as Buckley softened his steely exterior and dropped his guard somewhat to reveal his truer self, and in particular, a more empathetic and vulnerable side.

He also became more trusting.

There was always the dog-hungry competitor, and an exceptionally smart football analyst, but there was now a yin to the yang in his coaching repertoire.

Buckley, 48, was more understanding, and gave more leash than the first few years of his coaching tenure, according to premiership swingman Ben Reid.

“From a coaching perspective the biggest thing was the way he has changed from his first year to his last because in his first year he probably thought it was all one way,” Reid said.

“Everyone had to be really into footy all the time.

“But the more he coached, the more he worked it out and learned on the job that not every player was wired the same way.

“They had different enjoyments in life.

“So that is where that empathy and care came into it and he understood that more and got better at handling different personalities, which has been a real strength of his in recent years.”

Buckley shakes hands with Ben Reid at Magpies training. Picture: Michael Klein

So, in a manner similar to Richmond’s premiership transformation, Buckley urged the Magpies to be themselves, open up more, and to connect and support one another after missing finals four years in a row between 2014 – 2017.

“Was I listening too much to what was going on outside? Yeah, I was,’ Buckley said in a watershed speech to the players at the start of the 2018 pre-season.

“As soon as I let that go and come back to you boys I felt a whole lot better about what I was doing and what I was a part of.

“And that I believe that we can be a part of something special.”

The change in approach was, in part, credited for helping launch the Magpies from a low point in 2017 when Buckley’s job was in grave danger as they overcome a 34 point halftime deficit to pip Hawthorn in Round 9 at the MCG.

Around that point, Buckley was holding on to the post by the skin of his teeth and the uncertainty at the club created a feeling that everyone was stepping on eggshells.

Towards the end of that year, president Eddie McGuire invited captain Scott Pendlebury into McGuire’s home for a frank discussion about the coach around the kitchen bench.

McGuire asked Pendlebury whether the club should back-in Buckley, and the answer was an emphatic yes, helping trigger a rise to the 2018 Grand Final where the Magpies shot-out to a five-goal lead only to go down to some late Jeremy McGovern, Liam Ryan and Dom Sheed magic in the final minute.

West Coast players celebrate after defeating Collingwood in the thrilling 2018 grand final. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

Buckley consoles Brodie Grundy after the final siren. Picture: Michael Dodge/AFL Media/Getty Images

The thrilling five-point defeat consigned Buckley to his third heartbreaking grand final loss in his three decades as player and coach at the club.

The spotlight has shone brightly on him the entire time, as one of the biggest names in the game, and an icon of one of the most famous sporting clubs in the country.

How he has remained so resilient to the constant scrutiny amazes even his closest confidants.

For Buckley, it was a matter of perspective.

Something he maintained by opening up the club and himself to the less fortunate.

There was always someone in a tougher spot.

Buckley has tried hard to keep quiet about his many acts of generosity over the journey, but van Cuylenberg shared one story.

“Someone sent me a photo they had taken of a man sitting down in an alleyway eating with a person who was homeless not that long ago,” van Cuylenberg said.

“My friend asked me in the text message ‘Is that your mate ‘Bucks’?

“Next time I saw him I mentioned it to him, and as it turns out ‘Bucks’ used to see the same person sitting alone in the CBD every time he went on this walk after one of his regular board meetings or something.

“So every time he saw the person sitting there Bucks would go and buy them a meal to eat together and sit there and have a chat to them in this laneway in the city.”

Perhaps it was in those moments that the serious business of wins and losses and tackling pressure or kicking efficiency would fade as he took a step into another person’s world on the streets of Melbourne.

This week, when Buckley addressed the Collingwood players inside the club to announce he was stepping down, he spoke about how blessed he was to have spent half a lifetime with friends playing and coaching the game he loved.

He was grateful for all of it and more than anything, wanted all his players and staff to be the best they can be.

It is why one of Buckley’s catch cries around the club and in life is “let yourself shine”.

But the curtain will be drawn on his illustrious Collingwood career after Monday’s clash against Melbourne at the SCG when he coaches the club for the last time.

He admitted to feeling “a bit of sadness”, but also excitement about the opportunity to spend more time with his two sons.

Buckley announcing his decision to step down as Magpies coach. His departure signals a new beginning at the club.

But it is unlikely he will be out of the caper for long, or able to draw himself away from the next Collingwood game, albeit from the couch instead of the coaches’ box.

“Football has been a massive part of my life and Collingwood has been a massive part of my life. Half of my time on this earth has been spent in and around the buildings at Victoria Park or here at the Holden Centre with people who are trying to represent the place as best as they can,” Buckley said.

“I will have a strong passion for this place until the day I am no longer on this earth and I don’t know how that is going to represent itself physically, but if I can get to games I think I will get there.

“I know (chief executive) Mark (Anderson) spoke about a send-off.

“But I’m really happy to just go under the radar for as long as I possibly can.”

Originally published as Nathan Buckley’s last game and the legacy he will leave behind at Collingwood